Back on the bike, feeling better; Bought a bike sweat guard.

I’m happy to report that I’m recovered enough from the flu to resume training!

I was feeling pretty good yesterday morning, and so I decided to do a freeride on the indoor trainer. I figured I’d start off nice and light, and ramp up the intensity a little bit if I was feeling well enough.

I did an easy 10 minute warmup in the Active Recovery zone with a cadence of 91 RPM. I was feeling good, so I decided to increase the workload at the 10 minute mark, and began to ride in my Tempo zone at ~219 watts (about 76% of my current FTP of 288) with a cadence of 90 RPM.

As I settled in to the pace I found myself feeling much better than I expected. I definitely felt a little weaker than usual, and my heart rate was also higher than it normally would be, but overall I was surprised by how good I felt. I think part of the reason I was enjoying the workout so much is that I’ve been dying to get back on the bike. Sitting around for the better part of a week sick and unable to exercise is torture for someone like me.

I figured I’d evaluate how I was feeling in 10-minute chunks, and continue riding at Tempo only if I was still feeling good (up to 40 minutes in total). I completed the 40 minutes with no problem, and then finished off with a 10 minute cool-down in the Active Recovery zone.

One problem with indoor training is that unless counter-measures are taken, highly corrosive sweat is constantly falling on the bike. Sweat will not only eat away the paint, it will corrode bike parts.

Last week I had to take my bike to the shop for some bottom bracket warranty work, and the non-drive side bottom bracket bearing was rusted (photograph). It occurred to me that sweat from my indoor training sessions was likely the cause.

I’ve always draped a towel over the top tube to catch sweat, but it’s not uncommon for the towel to slip off the bike while I’m training. When that happens I never stop my workout to pick the towel up, and so my bike is exposed to a lot of sweat.

I finally broke down last week and picked up a so-called “Bike Thong”. The one I went with is the CycleOps Bike Thong Bicycle Sweat Protector, and overall I’m pretty happy with it. As you can see in the picture, I was able to sort of bunch it around my stem-mounted Garmin Edge 500. The thong stays put and caught most (not all) of the sweat falling off of me yesterday. It’s definitely a better solution than a towel.

I may pick up a fan to supplement the bike thong. I don’t mind sweating, but I also want to keep my bike looking and running good.

As for today’s workout, I’m still only feeling about 80%, but I think I’m good for another ride. I’ll probably do something similar to yesterday’s workout. I don’t want to overdo it, but I want to keep the pedals turning. 🙂

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